Features / One Question Interviews

Adam Gnade & the Hot Earth All-Stars

SPB: Do you approach writing lyrics differently than you approach fiction?

Gnade: With fiction I have this big well of a story I draw from. A lot of it is planned out already--how my characters interact, where their lives go, their deaths, births, marriages, their struggles, their ambitions and their failures. …

Flagpolers

SPB:What is a flagpoler?

A Flagpoler is a nickname/kind of slur to that border guards give to people renewing their immigration status in Canada. At the point of starting this band 3/4 of us we're flagpolers and from Ireland. Now half the band is still Flagpolers and from Ireland. I hope that helps!

Ryan Fleming (Black Table) 

SPB: What is the most tiresome stereotype about black metal?

Fleming: We don't consider ourselves Black Metal, but I'll speak about how I view scenes in general. It's similar to Animal Farm. It begins as an exciting rebellion against the confinement and closed thinking of a situation, but it eventually becomes the …

Juan Hernandez (Colombian Necktie – guitar)

SPB: What band has been your favorite to tour with? 

Hernandez: We actually don't have a favorite but we definitely have a most memorable. Last year we went out on tour with friends Black Sheep Wall and we were playing in SLC. We went to this wing spot that had a spicy …

Daniel Albaugh (Die Young)

SPB: What is the longest (in terms of time) tour you’ve been on? Would you be out for that long again?

Albaugh: In Die Young's touring hey-day, mainly 2004-2008, we did quite a few tours that were roughly two months long. Sometimes the tours that included international dates in Asia or Europe felt the …

Jake Smith (Knife Hits)

SPB: Who is your favorite flyer/gigposter artist?

Smith: I narrowed my answer to a tie between two amazing artists and they happen to be two of my best friends. From my earliest days of playing shows in Florida (about 15 years ago), Vivek Vasudeva made the coolest flyers for our bands, I remember one …

Luke (Somni)

SPB: What is the best movie you’ve seen this year?

Luke: I've seen a lot of great films this year, so this is tricky. I'm going to go with The Witch (dir: Robert Eggers), a great little horror film set in yee olde times featuring a goat called Black Philip. It was brilliant! I'm a big …

Eddie Gobbo (Something Is Waiting)

SPB: What is your favorite album cover of all time?

Gobbo: Bruce Springsteen - Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ

CHUCK

SPB: What do you like to do on a tour off date?

CHUCK: It's kind of a funny question for me because, I've never properly toured, I've only played about 6 shows. There's a few reasons why. First and foremost, I have very little confidence in myself as a live musician. I think I can be a …

Arrica Rose (Dear Country)

SPB: Have you ever forgotten lyrics mid-song? How did you recover?

Rose: I have forgotten lyrics. If it's my song I'll do a 2nd verse same as the 1st, use what lyrics come to mind sort of thing, or mumble a bit until they come back. If it's a cover song I'll ask the …

Jon DeHart (Fight Amp) 

SPB: What are your expectations, emotionally, for your final tour? How do you think it will feel different than the countless tours before this one?

Jon: I think this last tour will be about as bittersweet as we could expect. It's gonna suck to not play these songs anymore, but at the same time …

Karen Haglof

SPB: After much time away from music, you've released 2 records in 3 years. Why the rush of new material after such a delay?

Haglof: Yes, I did spent years away from music, going to school and entering a different career. But once the bug to play hit again, and I climbed the fairly steep learning …

James Manson (Holy White Hounds)

SPB: How do you find out about new bands or music that you enjoy?

Manson: I think that the first bands that made an impact on my life left a bread crumb trail of artists and records that I ended up diving into because of the admiration I had for those first bands. …

Andrew Barnes (Drunk Couples – drums)

SPB: Drunk Couples is a departure in sound from your previous project. Do you find it challenging to separate the different styles or associations that come with changing bands?

Barnes: It all came pretty naturally to totally shift musical gears when CJ and I started Drunk Couples. Not only is this band …

Emmett (Pkew Pkew Pkew – bass/vocals)

SPB: Winter touring in Canada: yes or no?

Emmett: Definitely tour in the winter in Canada. Sure you have to take it easy on the roads, but you can just leave all your beers in the van the entire time and they stay cold!

Peter Case

SPB: I just finished reading the book you released in 2006, As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport, loved it and your stories of your youth as you made your way to California. Any chance you will be adding to it or writing a complete autobiography in the future?

Case: Well, yes, I …

Eric Fisher and Arlie Carstons (Atoms and Void)

SPB: When collaborating with so many artists, how do you draw the determine when to allow a “guest improv” vs pre-composed music?

Atoms and Void: Our approach to recording is both guided and spontaneous, and our reasons for working with a specific musician (or combination of musicians) are always very …

Chrissy (Thin Lips-vocals/guitar)

SPB: Do you get nervous before you play a show?

Chrissy: I definitely am always scared before we play...Sometimes it's worse than others. The boys are pretty relaxed, a little nervous here or there, sometimes pretty nervous but it doesn't show too much. Usually once I start playing I'm fine but right before I get …

Indy (CoinTossRecords)

SPB: What was the first punk show you attended?

Indy: It was a Split Lip show in Indianapolis. I was in middle school, a long time ago.

Sarah Quintero (Spotlights)

SPB:What’s the strangest trend you see in modern music (or in the industry)?

Quintero: The strangest trend I have been noticing today in music is seeing older bands (that I grew up listening to), like Failure, Shiner, and Hum, get back together and be reviewed and/or accepted into the “metal” scene. Growing up these bands …